FEED - November 2007 | Union of Concerned Scientists

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FEED - November 2007

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1. CALL TODAY - Food and Farm Bill needs your voice!

Wise federal spending on food and agriculture programs can help protect the foundation of our food supply—like healthy soil and a fresh water supply—while discouraging farm practices that can harm our health. The 2007 Food and Farm Bill is now being debated on the Senate floor and will set U.S. food and agricultural policy for the next five years. Currently, the majority of Food and Farm Bill subsidies go to promoting over-production of crops such as corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton that are already flooding the market, encouraging farming methods that are harmful to environmental and human health. Major reform is needed now! The Senate should increase support for programs that encourage research on sustainable agriculture, promote conservation of land and natural resources, and help farmers convert to organic production methods. Please call your senators TODAY—urge them to vote for amendments coming to the Senate floor that support these programs and end the status quo! To reach your senators, call the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121. For more information on the Food and Farm Bill, read our action alert or read Michael Pollan's hard-hitting commentary in the New York Times.

2. New grass-fed label for beef approved
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a new voluntary "grass-fed" label that will allow consumers to identify meat from cows and other animals raised on a natural diet of grass. Cows raised on grass, the natural diet that they evolved to eat, are healthier than cows in feedlots that are fed corn, which they have trouble digesting. To qualify for the label, animals must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season. Beef from cows raised in these smart pasture operations also has health benefits for consumers and is easier on the environment according to a UCS study. Read the announcement of the new label.

3. Green Cuisine: Meals worth writing home about
In the second installment of our new online Green Cuisine series, UCS talks with chefs David Crooker and Daran Poulin at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Their delicious, healthy, earth-friendly food is earning rave reviews on campus as well as national recognition. We also visit Arnold Luce, the farmer and meat processor who supplies Crooker and Poulin with local beef that is raised without antibiotics. Raising animals without antibiotics avoids contributing to a rise in drug-resistant bacteria that can make illnesses in humans more difficult to treat. Check out our interactive slideshow and get a FREE fall recipe from the Bowdoin kitchens.

4. Dangerous bacteria strain linked to antibiotic use in swine
A dangerous strain of bacteria resistant to the antibiotic methicillin now kills more people in the United States than AIDS, emphysema, or homicide, according to a government study. The bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has long been known to thrive in hospitals, but has now spread into the general community, where it is spread by contact with clothing or skin. New studies from Europe and Canada suggest that some MRSA may originate in swine operations and spread via pig farmers and their families into the general community. The U.S. government does not know whether use of antibiotics in livestock in the United States is contributing to community-associated MRSA, because it is not testing U.S. livestock for the presence of bacteria. Read more from the New York Times.

5. Organic farming can feed the world
Organic farms can produce enough food to support the world's population, according to researchers from the University of Michigan. They analyzed data from nearly 300 studies comparing organic yields with nonorganic yields in both developing and developed countries. The researchers concluded that organic farming methods could support the world's current population, and potentially an even larger population, without converting any additional land to crop production. Moreover, intensified organic agriculture would reduce the harmful impacts of conventional farming such as soil erosion, water pollution, release of global warming pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Read the study abstract in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems.